wolc123

I have an old Traditions "Fox-river 50", side-lock that I may press into service during the early ML week. It is a cap-lock, but it is a compact, easy-handling gun and would be much nicer toting thru the swampy Adorondack bush, then my heavy T/C Omega. I have not fired it in over 10 years and it needs some new sights. That will give me a good early spring shop and range project. Also, I am going to scout out a fine (town of) creek bottom, on Memorial day weekend, and maybe get a brook trout or two in the process.

That sounds like something I would like to try, but I have not had a single carb problem from any of my dozen plus small engines, since I started using ethanol-free gas in most of them. That stuff is well worth the extra 40 to 50 cents a gallon to eliminate all that aggravation.

Bill, I was able to kill a turkey a few years ago. If opening archery season for crossbows on Ocrober 1 is what it will take to finally get you a deer, then I am all for it. Otherwise, I am content with an October 15 crossbow owner, and letting the "traditionalists" have their time. Personally, being a MEAT first guy, I would rather harvest my deer when the weather cools off a bit. That makes it easier for me to keep the meat fresh. October 15 is just right, most years.

Ideally, archery season would be split between "traditional", which would allow only recurves and long bows, starting on October 1st. Starting on October 15th, until opening day of gun, the "modern" archery weapons could be used, including compounds and crossbows. Such a structure offers something for most. The "real", traditionalists would get their peaceful, special time to themselves and the crossbow would get a bigger chunk of the season. The only ones who would might loose something, are the selfish, elitist compound only guys. I can't say that I have any sympathy for them.

Are these crazy land prices a result of a pandemic induced mass migration of population out of the city ? City rentals must be dropping in cost, or am I missing something ?

I remember that blue and white extended cab Ford pickup very well. I have not known anyone, who could put down a barley sandwich faster than it's owner, God rest his soul. I ran into his wife in church a couple weeks ago, and she was doing very well.

The new wood does not have the same "feel". I sold a bit of the "excess", but I prefer to reuse most of it. I had a couple of stands, that I had never killed deer from, untill I wrapped them with 3 ft high, 1881 & 1883 barnwood walls. I am also much more comfortable working in a shop made from that 200 year old American Chestnut, than I would be in one made from modern plywood and 2 x 4's. I am looking forward to enclosing the back portch on the new pole barn with some more of that old wood. That will include a couple big swinging doors with some big old iron strap hinges, that I picked up at a local garage sale. I also saved many of the original, old iron square nails, and I plan on using those on the "new" old doors. Those that were inside and in weather protected areas are still in "like new" condition.

Prior to a couple nights in the central Adirondacks last fall, it had been about 10 years since I spent a night in the truck, prior to a morning hunt. The temperature outside dropped down to the twenties those nights. Much to my surprise, the furnas fired right up and held it to a perfect 67 degrees inside. The most important thing to have in your truck, is a furnas with a thermostat, if you need to sleep in it when it is cold out. The furnas in my previous camper lacked a thermostat, and I can't recall a single comfortable night in that during the fall. It was always too hot or too cold inside, when I woke up in the morning. Getting a good night's sleep, is the first ingredient in a successful hunt. I did not kill my first Aditondack deer until about 11 years ago, when I bought this camper. I stopped using it for a stretch, after my in-laws built a house up there (with a good furnas).

An issue is winter storage. If you leave those old beams outside and uncovered thru the winter, they will turn to powder. After I dismantled the first 36' x 46' x 16' "1881" barn, I stacked the beams on ties, and covered them with heavy duty Harbor-freight tarps, thru the winter. I did the same thing with the siding boards, with "stickers" for air flow. All that wood was good and solid when I repurposed much of it in the new pole barn. I have sold some of it and folks are wanting more. I need to save enough to enclose the back 25' x 10' porch on my new barn, and for a few more deer blinds. I dont like dealing with tarps, so I am going to cut the 9" and 6" square hand-hewn beams into 10 ft lengths, after I knock down the 1883 barn skeleton. That way, they will stack easily under my back porch. I have plenty of room up in the pole barn loft for the siding boards.

My first snowmobile was a 1971 Moto-ski 399 Zephyr. Same parent company.

Who needs electricity ?

Nice, but how about this one ? It is my favorite, but it is on its second cord.

Here is some of the work I still have to look forward to on the 1883 barn replacement project. In the photo, you can see the remains of the "83" siding board. I don't particularly care for heights, and that board broke right across the numbers as I attempted to pull it down last summer. I was up as high as I was willing to go on an old wood extension ladder. Fortunately, the "18" board gave me a little less trouble. I still have the siding boards to strip off the back wall and a few on the right side of that old barn. I will get the rest of that "83" board, after I pull the frame skeleton down to the ground. Maybe I will use it as part of the wall on one of my new deer platforms. I can call it the # 3 Dale Earnhardt stand. Before that can happen, I need to take down the silo out back with a sledge hammer.

The older I get, the more important it is to be comfortable. Our kids are starting to get sick of venison. I did not see any tasty squirrels from that stand yesterday. I might give it one last try this afternoon at home. I also want to see if the deer have been hitting the turnips out back. 4 or 5 turkeys walked thru about 5:00 pm, too far to see if they had beards. I tried to zoom in on one for the photo. Hopefully, they will hang around until May. There were tons of deer tracks in the woods over at folks place, and no coyote tracks, which is a good thing.

This picture shows the inside of a completed platform blind, with the 3 ft barnwood wall/gun rest. This one is on the ladder rack of a construction style truck cap, on one of my two-story blinds. A couple other small "shop projects", which were completed during last deer season, are shown in the photo. The shimmed 3/4" marine plywood sub floor was required to get the floor level. The fiber glass chair was garbage picked and gutted. I had to rip off the padding and cover to make it weather and mouse proof. I will be on the lookout for a couple more similar chairs for the new blinds. Folks are always putting them out by the road.

Thanks, it has been a lot of work over the last several years, and I still have a ways to go. I would have liked to have saved my great great grandfather's old barns, but the roofs and foundations were shot, and it would have cost many times more to repair them, than it did to replace them with the new one. The skeleton of one of the old ones is still standing (you can see part of it to the right in the first photo). I have most of the siding stripped off. There is a big concrete silo behind it that I need to drop before I pull it down. It also has a fair amount of junk inside that needs to be dealt with. It is amazing how much stuff builds up over 150 years. I had to complete the dismantling of it's slightly older twin, before putting up the new pole barn on the same site. The shell for that went up in 2018. I salvaged the "18" siding board from the near the peak of the still standing "1883" barn, and tried to match the text for the "20" to mark "2018" date inside the roof peak of the new barn

Here are a few pictures. The only thing I actually insulated was 20 ft of exterior wall (with 6" fiberglass). That section is mostly under the porch shown in the first photo. The "heated" 20' x 12' woodshop (3rd photo) has an 8 ft ceiling (hay loft), with 1" chestnut boards covered by 5/8" OSB. It took that little propane heater, set on high, about 1/2 hour to raise the temp from 35 to 55 this morning. It was holding it comfortably there, set on low. The 10' x 12' metal shop (2nd photo) is also under the hay loft, in the NW corner of the building. The man door under the porch enters that shop. The framing for those interior shops and the loft is reclaimed timbers from my great great grandfathers old barn.

If you go up that way to check it out, Last Sunday, I noticed a "for sale by owner" sign on 90 some acres in the town of Defferiet, on rt 3A, near rt 3. That is right on the edge of Ft Drum. The deer population is not too bad in the area. It looks like wooded, slight hilly to flat property, and is about 20 minutes from exit 48 on rt 81. There was a phone number on the sign, but I have no idea what they were asking.

I got 'em from behind once, but never from below.

I think that is my newest drill. I remember my grandfather buying it, around 1980. I have a couple of hand crank ones, that might be from the 1800's, and a couple other much older, metal electric ones, which might be from the 1940's or 50's. I can't stand battery operated drills, although I will admit that my father in law's Dewalt worked well on an ice augers last weekend. He knew enough to bring the batteries in the house to warm up before I needed it this year. Last year, they were all outside in the cold and I had to use my old hand crank auger. The rain stopped now, and I am out on a stand waiting on the squirrels. It is warm enough, but still a bit windy. It was nice to see my folks anyhow. Ma has soup for supper, and with some luck, it might have crock pot squirrel for lunch tomorrow.

I dry the fillets with paper towels, prior to vacuum sealing. I like 12 - 15 inch bass best for eating, and it takes about one paper towel per fillet that size, to get them dry enough for sealing.

Usually, I prefer outside winter sports on weekends in February, but mud season has arrived a bit early this year. Too rainy and windy for squirrel hunting. I may get out, on the last day tomorrow, if the weather cooperates. Today, I am making a couple larger platform stands to replace a small hang-on, over at my folks place, and a small metal ladder stand, out back here at home. I had enough leftover pressure treated framing lumber and maintenance free decking, up on my hay loft, to make them each 42" square. Each will get 3 foot barnwood sided walls, after I get them up about 7 feet. They will get lag bolted to the trees, and a couple pressure treated 4 × 4's for front support. Those won't become available, until I use up a little more firewood, which is stacked up outside on them. Each of the stands I am replacing is too small for comfort and lack good shooting rails. These new stands should greatly improve my range capability, thanks to the 3 ft wall/rest, and make for a more comfortable, longer lasting hunt.

Those are my favorite fish to catch, and almost my favorite to eat (I prefer largemouth bass by a slim margin). I dont care for fried fish and perch and walleye get too dry baked, grilled, or broiled. Bass has just enough oil in it to keep it moist through those healthier cooking processes. I have caught bass in NY state on every month but December and March, but I only keep them during open season. The half dozen smallies that I caught last weekend, while ice fishing for perch, got released (the one in the photo twice). One key to making bass taste great, is getting the meat off of them, and vacuum sealed, while it is still twitching. I have worn out about 6 live well pumps in the last 30 years, keeping them that way. Lunch today was leftover Lake Erie smallies, along with my favorite lunch beverage. That also works great for washing down raw walleye cheeks. That's the only part of those I really like.

It is good to hear they got them Remington lines fired up in time to cash in on this seller's market.

Everything tastes good with Genny. My wife baked fish today. Her and the kids had Lake Erie smallmouth, and I had the last of our "Lake of the Isles" largemouth bass, that has been vacuum sealed in the freezer since August, washed down with a Light. It was damn good and I am looking forward to the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. I got to wash it down with water there though.